Baedeker Blitz

Exeter

Bath

Norwich

York

Canterbury

Baedeker Blitz

The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids were a series of Vergeltungsangriffe ("retaliatory attacks") by the German air force on English cities in response to the bombing of the city of Lübeck during the night from 28 to 29 March 1942 during World War II.

Background

Lübeck was bombed on the night of 28/29 March 1942. The Lübeck raid along with the raid on Rostock caused "outrage in the German leadership… and inspired the retaliatory 'Baedeker' raids". In retaliation for the Lübeck raid the Germans bombed Exeter on 23 April 1942, the first of the 'Baedeker' raids.

The raids

Baedeker's Great Britain guide for 1937

The Baedeker raids were conducted by the German Luftwaffe's Luftflotte 3 in two periods between April and June 1942. They targeted strategically relatively unimportant but picturesque cities in England. The cities were reputedly selected from the German Baedeker Tourist Guide to Britain, meeting the criterion of having been awarded three stars (for their historical significance), hence the English name for the raids. Baron Gustav Braun von Stumm, a German propagandist is reported to have said on 24 April 1942 following the first attack, "We shall go out and bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the Baedeker Guide."

The cities attacked were:

• First period
  • Exeter (23 and 24 April; 3 May)
  • Bath (25 and 26 April)
  • Norwich (27 and 29 April)
  • York (29 April)

938 civilians were killed in these raids.

• Second period, following the bombing of Cologne
  • Canterbury (31 May; 2 June and 6 June)

Across all the raids on these five cities a total of 1,637 civilians were killed and 1,760 injured, and over 50,000 houses were destroyed. Some noted buildings were destroyed or damaged, including York's Guildhall and the Bath Assembly Rooms, but on the whole most escaped — the cathedrals of Norwich, Exeter and Canterbury included. The German bombers suffered heavy losses for minimal damage inflicted, and the Axis' need for reinforcements in North Africa and Russian Front meant further operations were restricted to hit-and-run raids on coastal towns by a few Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter-bombers. Deal, Kent was one of these towns and was hit hard, with over 30 civilian dead most of whom are buried in the Hamilton Road Cemetery, Deal, Kent.

On 27 April Churchill told the War Cabinet that the government should do all it could to 'ensure that disproportionate publicity was not given to these raids' and 'avoid giving the impression that the Germans were making full reprisal' for British raids.

Several other raids are sometimes included under the Baedeker title, although only a few aircraft were involved in each, and damage was not extensive. These raids were all on East Anglian locations. Among the British firefighters assigned to the scene in Bath was Harry Patch, who in the 2000s became the last surviving British veteran from the First World War.

• Bury St Edmunds
• Cambridge
• Lowestoft
• Great Yarmouth
• Ipswich

Postscript

Willi Schludecker at the 25 April 2008 memorial service in Bath with his remembrance wreath

Willi Schludecker, 87, who flew more than 120 sorties for the Luftwaffe, including the Bath raids, travelled to UK as part of Bath's annual remembrance service on Friday 25 April 2008.

On 17 June 2010, at the age of 90, Willi Schludecker died in a hospital in Cologne.

See also

• Bath Blitz
• Bombing of Lübeck in World War II
• Battle of Britain
• British military history of World War II
• Operation Steinbock

References

• Grayling, A. C. (2006); Among the dead cities; Bloomsbury (2006); ISBN 0-7475-7671-8 . Pages Pages 50–52
• Harris, Arthur (1947); Bomber Offensive, Pen & Swords, (Paperback 2005), ISBN 1-84415-210-3; page 105

Further reading

• BBC News: Blitzed by guidebook Retrieved February 2012
• BBC: People's War Retrieved February 2012
• Bath Blitz website Retrieved February 2012
• York Air Raids